The Beasts (4)
The negative emotions swirled violently in my head. What the hell is wrong with these bastards? Why would they do something like this?
Sons of bitches… I can’t believe human beings are capable of this.
Even a priest who had trained for years would have their mind shaken by a sight like this. This is enough to make me believe they’re heretics. No… surely they can’t actually be heretics, right?
People can kill on impulse. There are countless reasons for that. But kidnapping someone and killing them in a calculated, deliberate way? That’s a completely different problem.
Planned murder, and on this scale.
I felt a firm resolve forming: whoever was behind this, I had to find them. If they were connected to the heretics, this incident couldn’t be wrapped up simply. I needed to scrape up as much information as possible. My heart began to pound at the thought of what might be hiding in this place.
“Survivors found here!!”
It hadn’t been long since we started searching when, fortunately, we discovered the captured victims. Their conditions were utterly horrific, and everyone clicked their tongues in pity.
“Everyone, control your expressions.”
“Yes, Captain.”
I approached the victims as carefully as possible, trying to appear as calm as I could and ensuring I wouldn’t seem like a threat. Even though they saw the people who had come to rescue them, they didn’t look happy. They simply hung limply, their exhausted eyes rolling slowly. It seemed they had no strength left to do anything else.
“We are holy knights from the Holy Empire. We’ve come to rescue you.”
I spoke to the victims, who were wary because they didn’t know our identities, even though they should have been overjoyed.
“The ones who imprisoned you have all been captured or killed. You can relax now. I know you must be in a lot of pain, but we’ll take you to the temple as quickly as possible. You can receive treatment there.”
Even after learning we had come to save them, their reactions were poor. It seemed they were struggling to escape the mental trauma they had suffered. Or perhaps they were still too dazed to fully process it.
“Move them carefully. Don’t put any strain on their injuries.”
“Yes, Captain!”
The knights carried the victims out one by one. As I watched them being carried away so lifelessly, my gaze fell on the man who had acted as bait. He was reuniting with his family and sobbing.
“You were here.”
“Hic… thank you. You came so quickly.”
He was receiving his reward for mustering that courage.
“Are your family members alright?”
When I approached and asked about their condition, the man wiped his tears and answered.
“Yes. Their mother is badly hurt. The good thing is that the children are safe. You’ve been through so much, honey.”
It looked like the wife had endured the torture in place of the children. Her condition was quite severe. Even though the children had no physical injuries, their situation was far from good. Their mother—the one person they could rely on in that horrifying space—had been subjected to violence right before their eyes. The tears clinging to the children’s eyes left deep traces of their suffering.
“You’ve all been through a lot. We will protect you from now on. Safely.”
“Thank you.”
Even moving must have been painful, yet the woman offered a heartfelt thank you upon hearing she was safe. These were the tragic crimes occurring near the Labyrinth. Because this place belonged to no one, no one managed it, and so no one came to stop crimes like this. The temple wanted to step in, but doing so would clearly cause diplomatic issues, so we couldn’t.
To see injustice right before my eyes and be unable to fix it…
I couldn’t help but sigh at how weak and insignificant I was, unable to properly follow His teachings.
“For now, let’s move these people to the temple. The rest of you, gather as much evidence as possible here.”
“Yes, Captain!”
Besides, there was no need to get blood on our hands in multiple places, so I planned to deal with the captured ones right here. You never know. There might be remnants we haven’t caught yet. So we would wait here. If anyone came, we’d capture them. If not, we’d turn everyone here into corpses and clean up before leaving. If word got out, people from all sides would interfere, so it was best to handle this quietly. This place had excellent tools and facilities for extracting confessions, so there was no reason to leave. They would experience the honor of personally tasting the tools they had grown so familiar with using on others. Wouldn’t they go mad with joy? Just as they had shown no mercy, we would temporarily set aside His words and show them none either.
They’re here!
The people who had been waiting anxiously appeared. I had been standing restlessly in front of the temple’s treatment center, wondering when they would arrive, when I finally saw them and rushed over. It wasn’t just the family of the man who had acted as bait that was in bad shape.
“I’m sorry, but could we start with treatment first?”
“Of course. In a situation like this, treatment comes first.”
I was curious about how things had gone, but I had no intention of putting my curiosity before treating the patients. Everyone was suffering greatly from the aftereffects of prolonged torture.
“You’ve all been through so much.”
It wasn’t just their physical wounds that needed healing; I had to approach carefully, taking their mental pain into account as well. The psychological trauma had left them terrified of strangers.
“You’re safe here, so you can relax. May I ask your name? Do you know where you are?”
“Ugh…”
The slow reaction made me suspect they might have been drugged. For now, I decided to purify their bodies and treat the visible wounds. When healing internal damage, I had to reflect on my anger toward these people and the vanishing sense of humanity within me.
“Those terrible people…”
It seemed I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. The priests treating them couldn’t hold back from muttering curses. Even though they swore inwardly, their hands moved quickly. And mine moved twice as fast as theirs.
“Doesn’t hurt anymore, right?”
“Ah…”
Her mouth had been torn, so she couldn’t speak properly. But as she slowly moved her body and realized the pain was gone, tears began to fall. They were probably not tears of pain, but of relief.
“Mommy… you okay?”
“Yes. Mommy’s fine. The priest healed everything.”
Only after seeing their mother recover did the children break into wide smiles.
“That’s a relief!”
The child who hadn’t smiled even when escaping that place now laughed at the news that Mommy was all better, then burst into tears.
“Huuuuh!!”
“Mommy…!”
When the older siblings cried, the younger one must have started too. The children’s parents looked flustered, worried their crying might disturb the treatment center, and hurriedly hugged the children to soothe them.
“I’m sorry. It seems the children can finally relax.”
“It’s natural after such a shock. No one here doesn’t understand how hard it’s been, so don’t scold them. Let them rest comfortably today. At such a young age, they might forget quickly, but on the other hand, today’s memories could stay with them for life. You need to work hard to cover those memories with good ones.”
Even for adults, these weren’t wounds that healed easily. They already had their hands full taking care of themselves, but I thought telling them to focus on the children might actually help this couple.
People become stronger when they have something to protect. Just like how that slender woman endured brutal torture to protect her children.
Sure enough, the exhausted couple seemed to snap back to attention at the reminder that they had to protect their children. Their hollow eyes regained their light.
“You have to stay strong.”
“Yes. We have to. We need to protect the children.”
They were such lovely children. Looking at their faces, which so perfectly resembled their parents, I couldn’t help but understand what it meant to love someone so much it wouldn’t hurt even if you put them in your eye. I decided this patient no longer needed comforting and moved on to the next one.
“You’ve already finished treating them?”
“Yes. Would it be alright if I help you a little?”
“I’d be more than happy.”
Using divine power tires priests as well. Who would refuse help with their workload? At my words, the priest quickly made some space, and I moved beside him to use my divine power.
“This patient’s…”
The priest began explaining the patient’s condition, intending to share the painful areas with me. But—
“Huh…?”
The patient seemed to notice their own condition first and reacted.
“Does it still hurt anywhere?”
“Eh?”
“Whoa…! It doesn’t hurt at all.”
The man swung his injured arm around and spoke with a face full of joy.
“What? Why does my arm move so well? You already healed a broken bone?”
“I only treated the immediately visible injuries. Since only the most obvious major areas have been healed, could you please take care of the finer details, priest?”
“Yes! I will.”
“Thank you. I’ll move on to the other patients.”
Why else would I have prayed so diligently to manage my body’s condition? It was to store up as much divine power as possible so I could use it without holding back.
“You’re saying you treated this in three minutes? Does it really not hurt?”
“Um… no, it doesn’t?”
The priests who had been watching my treatment from the side couldn’t believe it and examined the patient’s body more thoroughly. Since I had asked them to finish up, I welcomed their careful inspection.
“All done. Please take it from here.”
“This got treated this quickly too?!”
Severe burns, festering and rotting wounds, torn flesh, pulled-out fingernails and toenails, broken arms and legs, and more. The external injuries were bad enough, but the internal damage was even worse. Malnutrition was common, along with weakened immunity throughout the body due to the shock of torture. I had poured in as much divine power as their bodies could handle, not only achieving short-term healing effects but also leaving some behind to continue aiding their recovery.